Category: Communication

Self-awareness is where transformation to team effectiveness begins.

Written by Wyvill Leanne on 10 January 2024. Posted in Communication, Team building.

Did you know there are 2 types of self-awareness?

And that research has found virtually no relationship between them?

You can have high internal self-awareness of your own values, joys, strengths, stressors and needs.

But that doesn’t mean you’ll inherently have high external self-awareness, which is understanding how others shape their ideas about you and what matters to you.

High internal self-awareness correlates to elevated job and relationship satisfaction, happiness and social interaction enjoyment.

People with high external self-awareness are more empathetic, open to others’ perspectives, and attract more trust and confidence in their abilities.

So, why does having a high level of internal AND external self-awareness matter?

Feeling misunderstood, undervalued and unappreciated at work leads to frustration, disengagement and underperformance.

Tensions tighten. Paranoia pervades. Stress levels soar.

Mistakes and missed opportunities result from the poor decision-making of un-self-aware leaders and lemmings.

But…

When we know and can articulate the values, joys, strengths, stressors and needs that matter to us, our team leader and workmates can help bring out our best selves.

And…

When we recognise the different values, joys, strengths, stressors and needs that matter to the people we work with, we can self-moderate our responses to their behaviours.

This quote by clinical social worker Shelley Aronov-Jacoby sums it up beautifully:

“Having self-awareness gives us the power to influence outcomes; helps us become better decision-makers and gives us more self-confidence. We can communicate with clarity and intention, which allows us to understand things from multiple perspectives. It frees us from assumptions and biases.”

In Ray Dalio’s Principles, the billionaire hedge fund entrepreneur talks about the high level of self-awareness needed to make the best decisions; and that means embracing our realities, including our mistakes and weaknesses.

The #1 ‘must-have’ for leaders

Self-awareness – internal and external – is a key step towards recognising and valuing difference to achieve unity within a group of diverse personalities who are working together for a common purpose.

It’s one of the common domains of that leadership ‘must-have’: emotional intelligence (EI).

Whether you read about the 4, 5 or 12 elements of EI, self-awareness always appears on the top of the list (it’s still evolving since the Goleman and Johari models).

Organisational psychologist Tasha Eurich’s multi-year study (involving more than 5000 participants) found that while 95% of people believe they are self-aware about how they’re perceived, only 10-15% truly are.

Her research also revealed that self-awareness is lower among people with more power. That’s a worry!

It’s been more than 50 years since social psychologists Shelley Duval and Robert Wicklund theorised this psychological concept in A Theory of Objective Self-Awareness.

They described it as:

“The ability to focus on yourself and how your actions, thoughts, or emotions do or don’t align with your internal standards. If you’re highly self-aware, you can objectively evaluate yourself, manage your emotions, align your behavior with your values, and understand correctly how others perceive you.”

Although, a few thousand centuries ago the ancient philosophers nailed it with “He who knows others is wise; he who knows himself is enlightened.” (Lao Tzu) and “Know Thyself” (Socrates).

More recently, a Harvard Business Review study by professors Erich Dierdorff and Robert Rubin found that un-self-aware colleagues can halve a team’s success prospects. They collected data from 300 leaders and 58 teams at a Fortune 10 company.

“For teams to perform effectively, each member must possess a combination of technical and interpersonal skills and constantly adjust their contributions to meet the team’s needs. Correctly understanding one’s capabilities relative to others is therefore paramount,” the researchers said.

Self-awareness is where the transformation to team effectiveness begins.

That’s why True Colors is based on a method of self-identifying values, joys, strengths, stressors and needs, then sharing the insights with the people we need to understand us.

Tasha Eurich suggests ‘find their humanity’ as one way to work with un-self-aware colleagues:

“As easy as it can be to forget, even the most unaware among us are still human. If we remember this, instead of flying off the handle when they’re behaving badly, we can recognize that, at the core, their unaware behavior is a sign that they are struggling. We can adopt the mindset of compassion without judgment.”

In my True Colors workshops we also look at recognising the stress signals that others send out, because our colleagues’ SOS (signs of stress) often look, sound and feel nothing like our own.

If you would like help exploring the effects felt in YOUR team when some people are not very self-aware…

And what you can do to improve how differences are valued…

Plus get better at recognising and responding to different stress signals…

Tap the button below to book a complimentary and unconditional Tell Me More call.

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Beware the Ides of December and avoid a productivity assassination

Written by Wyvill Leanne on 20 November 2023. Posted in Business writing, Communication, Team building.

Ides is what the ancient Romans named the midpoint of the month (the 13th or 15th day).

Julius Caesar was assassinated on the Ides of March in 44 BC, despite being warned of impending doom. His death triggered a series of civil wars that resulted in the end of the Roman Republic.

Don’t be like Julius. Heed my warning about the Ides of December.

And Fridays.

Fizzling out on Fridays

Priceonomics analysed data from project management software company Redbooth and found that Fridays were nearly 20 percent less productive than Mondays.

Texas A&M University researchers tracked 789 in-office employees over 2 years and found they were less active and more mistake-prone on afternoons and Fridays, the lowest point of worker productivity.

Instead of relying on self-reporting surveys, this study monitored objective computer usage metrics (typing speed, typing errors, and mouse activity), then compared patterns across different days of the week and times of the day.

The researchers suggested that “mounting stress and mental and physiological fatigue as the workweek progresses” could be the cause.

Downtime December

December, being the slackest time of the year for many non-retail businesses, is like a month of Fridays.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), we worked 9.5 million fewer hours in December 2022 than we did in the November before it.

A few years ago, a Go People survey revealed that 15 December is the least productive day of the year (frequently due to post-corporate Christmas party hangovers), costing the Australian economy $12.8 million.

And this year 15 December falls on – yep – a Friday!!

Wellness and resilience expert Gina Brooks told the Sunday Mail that productivity levels can drop by almost 40 percent in the weeks leading up to Christmas.

Dr Julia Harris, writing for Medical Press, said the “Festive Fizzleout” has this impact on productivity:

“Workers reported varying degrees of productivity loss. Over two-thirds (68 percent) were less productive throughout the entire month of December compared to other months, with nearly one-half admitting they did 10-20 percent less work and 1 in 6 produced 20-30 percent less. The reasons for this output reduction included a combination of exhaustion, lack of motivation and hangovers.”

A study by project management platform Teamwork confirmed December as the year’s least productive month. After reviewing more than 25 million user-completed tasks completed over 12 months, it discovered that we’re almost 50 percent less productive than we are in October (the most productive month).

But we know that December disappearances – of bodies at desks and minds on the job – start every year shortly after the tree tinsel starts twinkling. It is the silly season after all.

Here’s why December feels like a month full of Fridays…

…particularly for project managers, team leaders, and HR professionals:

Hungover workers distract their functioning colleagues when reliving the party highlights to avoid work requiring brain effort.
Workers who are also parents take leave days to attend end-of-year school/ballet/band concerts and swimming carnivals.
Workers who are not parents also take leave to grab a few days’ break before holiday spots are swarming with school-aged kids.
People prefer to work from home because they can’t stand Christmas carols playing nonstop in commercial buildings.
People are winding down for the key holidays.
Projects have wound up so invoices can be issued well before the end of the year and new ones won’t be kicking off until at least mid-January when most people are back on deck.
General end-of-year tiredness and over-it-ness.

The ABS cites these as the top 5 reasons for working less last December:

Taking leave (annual, holiday, long-service, flex-time)
Illness or injury
Personal reasons, e.g. caring for unwell family members
Bad weather
Equipment/plant breakdown

So, what you can do to be team-productive when work-productive is too much to expect?

If you’d rather December didn’t feel like a month full of Fridays, book in some fun but educational experiences to make use of the energy difference, like…

Or you could do all that filing that’s been piling up…

Yeah, nah.

Let’s talk through what you would rather do in a complimentary Tell Me More call.

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How to make a dramatic difference to team performance

Written by Wyvill Leanne on 6 November 2023. Posted in Communication, Team building.

The hype leading up to the Melbourne Cup this week jogged a memory from another lifetime, and it got me thinking about cohesion as an indicator of a winning team.

How do you recognise strong team cohesion?

Does your lineup match mine?

If you know me, you won’t be surprised to find out I was once a drama teacher. (Whenever I’m accused of being a drama queen, I reply, “And I have an Honours degree in Theatre Studies to prove it!”).

At the Warringah Eisteddfod one year, my students seemed to win more awards than Ben Hur and I jokingly commented that the drama teachers deserved to get trophies too.

Not sure if it was a student or their mum who heard me, but what my Beacon Hill Youth Club 12-year-olds gave me at the end of the year remains the Best. Teacher’s. Gift. Ever.

So here’s what the memory triggered about team success.

Just like an ensemble cast, an effective team performs with….

Strong connection to the purpose or goal through shared values
A common desire to fulfil that purpose/achieve the goal
Belief that what they are doing will create value for the audience
Willingness to be directed
A single, not split focus
A shared mental model for situation awareness – everyone has the same idea about what’s going on, what needs to be done, and how to make it happen
Mutual trust and respect for each other’s role
In-sync timing and tone
Confidence – feeling safe to play their parts
Active listening (they must listen to each other so the performance works, progresses and shares meaning with the audience)

What the research tells us:

I haven’t just fielded these characteristics from my experience – plenty of research has revealed just how much of an impact slack team cohesion has on productivity and performance.

In HR Magazine’s report, “a study of 4,000 employees showed almost half (46 percent) were unsure of what was being asked of them by their line manager when given tasks and over a third (37 percent) experienced this uncertainty between one and three times a day. Employees estimated this resulted in up to 40 minutes of wasted time per day – the equivalent of 83 employees in a company of 1,000 doing nothing every day.”

In the Forbes Advisor “State Of Workplace Communication In 2023” report, almost half of the 1000 research respondents said ineffective communication impacts their productivity and stress levels. For 38 percent, it also affects trust in their team.

And… action!

With an ensemble approach focusing on inclusivity and collaboration, what can you as the team ‘director’ do to tighten team cohesion?

Players need to know the script or story to be told. Communicate the goals clearly and consistently so everyone can picture themselves in position for moving the story along.

Your players know their lines, but it’s your job to guide how they deliver them for the desired effect without micro-managing (you don’t see the director on stage, do you?). If the directions don’t make sense to the players, they’ll talk and trip over each other.

Ensure everyone can recognise their roles in relation to others – to see how, when and where their strengths will advance the story line and help others contribute their part (and not waste time or resources duplicating effort unnecessarily).

(In “Why teams don’t work,” published in Theory and Research on Small Groups, Harvard University’s Professor J. R. Hackman suggested that “avoiding mistakes and obstacles requires answering fundamental questions of who decides, who is responsible, who gains, and who learns.”)

Create opportunities to rehearse together, to workshop scenes and fail safely before presenting the final outcome. When players feel more confident and comfortable with improvising, more “aha!” moments are discovered.

(A Fierce, Inc. survey revealed that 86 percent of 1,400 workers and managers attribute workplace failures to a lack of collaboration and ineffective communication.)

Train up understudies. Ensemble players need to be multi-skilled to step in when “life happens” so the show can go on.

(According to Lorman Education Services research from sources such as Gallup, PWC and Harvard Business Review, 76 percent of millennial workers regard opportunities for professional development to be the most appealing aspect of a company’s culture.)

Always acknowledge the front-of-house and backstage crews. While they may not be motivated by the limelight, nothing sounds right, looks bright, or feels real without their seemingly invisible efforts.

Take a bow – celebrate successes and accept recognition and appreciation together and you’ll hear the request for “Encore! Encore!”.

I haven’t taught a drama class for a long time, but I do ensure my workshops are edutaining.

If you want to know how I help teams become more cohesive so they can be effective and perform like an award-winning ensemble, book a complimentary Tell Me More call.

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Taking a swing at the program piñata can be hit and miss

Written by Wyvill Leanne on 24 October 2023. Posted in Communication, Team building.

Are you like a kid in a lolly shop when it comes to choosing team training activities?

How do you decide which trainer will treat your team to more than a KitKat break from the daily chew?

What program will hit the sweet spot for what you want to achieve?

Maybe your choices in the past made you feel like an all-day sucker – the trainer promised a Wizz-Fizz experience but what you got was more like Sour Worms.

This time you want to make sure there’s a balance of learning and laughter, but it can feel like you’re negotiating a Rocky Road just to compare Toffee Apples with Chocolate Oranges.

Taking a swing at the program piñata can be hit and miss, even without the blindfold.

Here’s your Life Saver.

I’ve compiled a checklist to help you.

See, to be a Smartie about booking team communication training, here’s what you need to consider:

Does the program…

Engage participants with practical, hands-on, interactive learning?
Accommodate visual, auditory, and kinaesthetic learning styles?
Address your needs (yours and your team’s)?
Allow some customisation for your industry or interests?
Align with your organisational values and goals?
Have a validated evidence base?
Encourage fun and creativity?
Establish a trusting and safe setting for sharing and learning?
Cover verbal and non-verbal communication?
Connect self-awareness to awareness of others’ values, joys, needs, strengths, and stressors?
Celebrate diversity to promote unity?
Offer a common language to continue the conversation?

And does the facilitator…

Apply adult learning principles and neuroscience knowledge?
Have credible experience and credentials?
Understand what you want from the training?
Sound enthusiastic about sharing their passion for the program?
Offer online, in-person and hybrid delivery options to suit your team/s?
Ensure the training experience is enjoyable from enquiry to evaluation?

To make it even easier for you, True Colors does and I do.

And I bring the lollies too.

You can read the Fantales here.

What else could help you choose the best team training experience when all the options look so enticing?

Let’s talk it through in a complimentary Tell Me More call.

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Why communication training should be fun

Written by Wyvill Leanne on 16 October 2023. Posted in Communication, Team building.

Bella said, “What could be more fun than a training day?”

Cue the synchronised eye rolling and onslaught of leave requests for that date.

Training should be fun.

And the research shows that work is more productive when there’s a healthy dose of fun involved.

In Dr Bob Nelson’s book, Work Made Fun Gets Done, co-authored with Mario Tamayo, there’s a short answer to the question, “Is having fun at work important?”.

Yes.

The authors’ research found that 81 percent of employees at companies ranked as ‘great’ in Fortune’s annual “100 Best Places to Work For” list described their workplace as fun.

In an article published in the Harvard Business Review, Dr Nelson said:

“Though fun at work is sometimes thought to be a distraction, research suggests that it has a positive impact on engagement, creativity, and purpose — increasing employee retention and reducing turnover.

“When we find tasks enjoyable, we’re more eager to dig in and complete them. When we make time for joy and laughter, we become resilient.”

Can fun boost productivity and learning?

The Social Market Foundation at the University of Warwick’s Centre for Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy conducted an experiment to find out if having fun at work is good for the bottom line.

Seven hundred randomly selected individuals were either shown comedy clips or given refreshments. They were then assigned tasks and had their productivity tracked.

For the people who watched the comedy clips, productivity increased by an average of 12 percent and, for some, as much as 20 percent.

A Loma Linda University study discovered that learning ability improved by 40 percent after participants laughed their way through a 20-minute video.

Does fun have to be funny?

Fun is subjective. It doesn’t have to involve laughter, jokes or slapstick shenanigans.

Fun can be anything that is not ‘hard work’.

It can be playing games, doing activities with people who share our interests, or just being with people who lift our mood.

It can be music and freedom to sing or dance along.

It can be solving a problem, competing for a prize, or being amongst colours, shapes and textures that stimulate our senses and make us feel good.

At work, shared moments of fun can boost motivation and commitment to common goals.

How does fun improve communication?

Just as playing with others and trying new things together helps children develop and practise communication skills, so does having fun at work, especially in training contexts.

Activities that involve listening, interpreting body language, and giving directions can be fun when you add props, challenges, role plays, and gamification.

Such elements can stretch us out of our comfort zones and into realms where we have to connect with our colleagues differently.

When we hear, see or do something we consider to be fun, we often repeat it to or with each other. We might tell others who were not part of the occasion about the fun they missed out on.

Why should training be fun?

Training for work is usually a group activity. Shared fun is memorable, and we associate the learning or new communication experience with the memory of the fun time.

The Queensland Brain Institute at The University of Queensland says we’re more likely to remember something we’ve learned when we have an emotional attachment to it.

Pleasure, amusement and enjoyment are emotional states associated with fun.

Educational experiences that trigger a positive emotional connection make the learning ‘sticky’.

If you’ve had bad training experiences in the past – and by that I mean boring, irrelevant, useless – then your first instinct when a training day is announced is probably to run and hide.

But what if YOU’RE Bella, the person who has to arrange some kind of training or team-building activity?

It’s a KPI, so not only do you have to pull a facilitator out of a hat, you have to magically make everyone else appear otherwise there’ll be no team benefit and no PD ROI.

Plus, it’s obvious something needs to happen to get the new team working together quickly and that requires trust – sooner, not later.

You don’t want to make that mistake again and spend more time on people problems than project work like last time.

Or that other mistake – assuming that because you don’t like giving up a day away from the desk to do training no one else does either.

Even if they do all turn up, some won’t come with an open mind because they’ve already convinced themselves it’ll just be a big waste of time.

Does it feel like your thinking cap is about to explode?

That’s not fun.

If you want more clarity about whether a team training and team building activity is going to help you achieve your objective…

And whether it will be ‘fun’ enough as well as sufficiently educational to keep everyone engaged…

Let’s talk it through in a complimentary Tell Me More call.

Book a Tell Me More Call

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